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LAUREL HILL 

AND SOME COLONIAL DAMES 
WHO ONCE LIVED THERE 



BY 

WILLIAM BROOKE RAWLE 



R«PRINT*D FROM " THE PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE OF HlSTORY AND BlOGRAFHY, 

roR October, 191 i 



Printed by 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 



"V. 

LAUREL HILL 

AND SOME COLONIAL DAMES WHO ONCE LIVED THERE 
BY WILLIAM BROOKE RAWLE. 

A PAPER READ MAY 1, 1901, BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF THE COLONIAL 
DAMES OF AMERICA, CHAPTER II, PHILADELPHIA, UPON THE OPENING OF 
THE RANDOLPH MANSION (AS IT IS NOW CALLED) IN EAST FAIRMOUNT 
PARK, PHILADELPHIA, BY THAT ORGANIZATION, IN WHOSE CARE AND 
CUSTODY IT HAD BEEN PLACED BY THE PARK COMMISSIONERS FOR 
RESTORATION AND OCCUPANCY. 1 

Members of the Society of The Colonial Dames of America, 
Ladies and Gentlemen: — 

It is a common custom in these United States of ours 
to treat as almost antediluvian the events which occurred 
before the American Revolution. The result of that 
glorious struggle for liberty and the rights of man was 
certainly a deluge — political and social. But a mistake 
is made, I think, in ignoring, to the extent which our 
people generally do, the history of our country before 
that great bouleversement. Especially in the minds of 
your charming sex — whose thoughts, happily, are more 
apt to be concerned with the present and the future than 
with the past — there is a certain angelic halo of — what shall 
I term it?— mistiness— vagueness— concerning the historical 

•Some of the following matter appears also in the account of "Laurel 
Hill and the Rawle Family," in the Second Volume of "Some Colonial 
Mansions and Those who Lived in Them," edited by Mr. Thomas Allen 
Glenn. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War Mr. Glenn entered 
the Military Service, leaving the article unfinished, and Mr. Henry T. 
Coates, the publisher of the book, requested me to finish it, which I did. 
1 have not had any hesiiancy, therefore, in repeating to some extent in 
this paper what I myself wrote for the work mentioned. — W. B. R. 

1 



2 Laurel Hill. 

sequence and co-relation of events, which strikes with per- 
plexity those of us mere men who are inclined to indulge in 
historical research and to study the philosophy of history. 
Among other things, we would suppose that a Society of 
Colonial Dames would devote itself more than it does to 
the study of the people of Colonial times, and to the 
publication of the manuscripts left by them, the preserva- 
tion of the places, and the commemoration of the events 
connected with the history of the American Colonies prior 
to the day upon which their system of government as 
Colonies came to an end — the Fourth of July, 1776. And 
is not the motto of your Society "Colere Coloniarum 
Gloriam"? 1 When we see the very laudable and patriotic 
steps taken by societies of Colonial complexion and name 
in the way of commemorating events which occurred 
after the Continental system had been inaugurated, we are 
apt to ask ourselves whether those objects do not rather 
come within the field of work of the Societies of the Sons, 
and of the Daughters, of the Revolution? And this 
reminds me of the reply of a bright young lawyer whom 
we all know, when he was asked if he knew what name, 
as contra-distinguished from that of your older organiza- 
tion of Colonial Dames, a certain "other" Society pro- 
posed to adopt — a Society strongly based on the memories 
of the American Revolution — "Why, the 'Continental 
Dames,' I suppose!" 

" Tell it not in Gath; publish it not in the streets of Askelon!" 

It is therefore in the spirit of the motto of your Society 
that I propose, in response to your invitation to say 
something about the house in which we are assembled 
to-day, and the people who lived in it in the long ago, to 
tell you of some Colonial Dames of a Colonial family 
who lived in Colonial times in this Colonial Mansion as 



To cherish the glory of the Colonies. 
1 



Laurel Hill. 3 

their summer home. . But their Colonialism was taken 
away from those ladies against their wills. There is no 
necessary and inseparable connection between matters 
Colonial and Toryism, as many people suppose, but in 
their hearts those ladies remained loyal to the status quo 
ante helium, and Colonial Dames to the end of their 
chapter. 

Some years ago I amused myself by bringing together 
and having copied, and to some extent editing, such 
family letters and diaries of my Colonial Dames as had 
been preserved, and from that interesting collection I 
have taken much of what I shall read to you to-day. The 
papers had been divided in bulk among the different 
members of the family, without regard to form, subject- 
matter, or chronological sequence, and it was no light 
task, I assure you, to arrange them in order, for ladies 
then, as now, had a way, most perplexing to men, of not 
always fully dating their letters. 

This house, which has been placed in the care and 
custody of your Society by the Commissioners of Fair- 
mount Park, was built, it is said, in the year 1748, and 
was owned by one Joseph Shute, from whose estate it 
was purchased in the year 1760 by Francis Rawle of 
Philadelphia, jointly with his brother-in-law Joshua 
Howell, together with the seventy-six acres of land sur- 
rounding it extending along the Schuylkill River from 
the glens dividing the property from the Strawberry 
Mansion tract on the North East and the Ormiston tract 
on the South West, and running back to a lane then 
called the Wissahickon Road, which communicated with 
the Ridge Road. The title was taken in Mr. Howell's 
name, and a few days subsequently he conveyed to Mr. 
Rawle the South Western portion, thirty-one acres of 
land with this house upon it, then and for nearly eighty 
years afterwards known as "Laurel Hill." Mr. Howell 
retained the remaining forty-five acres of land and there 
built for himself a country house, to which and its sur- 



4 Laurel Hill. 

roundings he gave the name of "Edgely." The latter 
house remained standing until after its acquisition by 
the City of Philadelphia for park purposes. 

By way of explanation let me state that it was not 
until the year 1837 that the Cemetery Company was 
incorporated, which gave the name of Laurel Hill to the 
tract about one mile above this, now North Laurel Hill 
Cemetery, and which had at one time been the country 
seat of Joseph Sims, called "The Laurels." In former 
days these bluffs along the river were noted for the 
luxurious growth of the laurel, and hence the name. 
Central Laurel Hill Cemetery was formerly the country 
place of George Pepper, and known as "Fairy Hill," 
while South Laurel Hill Cemetery was at one time the 
country seat of William Rawle, the son of Francis Rawle 
just mentioned, and called "Harleigh." 

Francis Rawle was born in Philadelphia in 1729. He 
was an only child whose mother died at his birth, and 
whose father died when his son was but twelve years of 
age. He was a well educated, cultured gentleman of 
ample means, and upon his reaching manhood he made 
the "Grand Tour" of Europe, travelling extensively and 
through various countries, as was the custom with those 
of his station in life whose financial circumstances allowed 
them to do so. Shortly after his return home he married, 
in 1756, Rebecca, daughter of Edward Warner, a wealthy 
and prominent citizen of Philadelphia, who while a 
member of the Assembly was associated with Isaac Norris, 
the Speaker, as a committee to obtain the bell for the 
State House— that "Liberty Bell" with its wonderfully 
prophetic legend selected by them:— "Proclaim Liberty 
throughout all the land, unto all the Inhabitants thereof." 

Francis Rawle did not live long to enjoy his beauti- 
fully situated country home, for in June, 1761, he was 
mortally wounded by the accidental discharge of his 
fowling piece while shooting upon the meadows o another 
estate of his, situated on the Delaware River at Point-no- 



Laurel Hill. 5 

point below Frankford. He left to survive him besides 
his widow, three young children, all under four years of 
age — Anna Rawle, who afterwards married John Clifford, 
William Rawle, and Margaret Rawle, who afterwards 
became the wife of Isaac Wharton. 

By his Will Mr. Rawle left all his property, including 
"Laurel Hill," to his widow, and there during the summer 
months she and her infant children resided. In 17G7 
she married her first husband's intimate friend, Samuel 
Shoemaker, himself a widower with several children — 
none of whom, however, except his son Benjamin, to be 
mentioned hereafter, survived the Revolution. Between 
"Laurel Hill" and Mr. Shoemaker's own beautiful country 
seat, "Pomona Terrace," in Germantown, the united 
families divided their time in summer. 

Mr. Shoemaker was a charming, thoroughbred, well 
educated and accomplished gentleman, of much culture, 
fine presence and large means. He was the son of a 
Member of the Governor's Council, and held many impor- 
tant offices in Philadelphia under the Royal and Pro- 
prietary governments. From 1755 to 1776, the end of 
Colonial times, he was continually in office, during much 
of the period holding several offices at the same time. 
He was a Councilman, Alderman, Assemblyman, City 
Treasurer, Mayor, Judge of the County Courts, and 
Justice of the Peace. He and his father between them, 
in those days of good municipal rule, when if they got 
good men they kept them, held the office of City Treasurer 
of Philadelphia without a break for twenty-five years— 
from 1751 until the fall of the Proprietary government 
in 1776. 

He was devotedly attached to his step-children, and 
they to him. Brought up as they had been under his im- 
mediate care during the formative period of their minds 
and characters, they could not but be influenced by the 
example he set before them and the teachings of the 
principles up to which he lived. They all by inheritance 



6 Laurel Hill. 

were members of the Religious Society of Friends. An 
officer under the Royal Government for such a length of 
time, and in so many capacities, in the filling of which 
he had again and again pledged his allegiance to the 
King, it could scarcely be imagined for an instant that 
a man of his conscientious principles and integrity would 
prove false to his liege lord. Nor could the children and 
their mother but absorb much of the atmosphere of 
loyalty to the Crown, in which he lived and moved and 
had his being. Like many others of his class and station 
in life, he fully appreciated the errors into which those 
obstinate and misguided men at the head of affairs in 
England had fallen, and he joined in the signing of the 
celebrated Non Importation Agreement of 1765. But 
when, according to his views, affairs began to go from 
bad to worse, he held back and stood aloof. 

There are many, as I said before, who are inclined to 
think that there can be no distinction between matters 
Colonial and Toryism. If I linger awhile with you to-day 
in the society of my Colonial Dames, do not accuse me 
of endeavoring to inoculate you with any of their Tory 
ideas or of attempting to give you a screed of Tory doc- 
trine. But there are two sides to most questions, and 
in an impartial study of our history one cannot but look 
behind the curtain which has been drawn around some of 
the events which occurred here in Philadelphia during the 
Revolutionary War. It does not do even now, in public, 
to delve too deeply into the subject, and stir up things 
which have been allowed to slumber for so many years, 
for the people generally will not realize the fact that 
here — I am confining myself to Philadelphia, for else- 
where the case was different — the majority of the men 
and women of education, refinement, wealth and high 
social position, among both Churchmen and Quakers, 
remained more or less loyal to the Crown — passively so, 
or apparently neutral, for the most part to be sure — and 
that they did not "give in their adhesion," as the expres- 



Laurel Hill. 7 

sion was, to the new government until its establishment 
had become an assured fact. 

With the young men of the same social circles, however, 
the spirit of liberty and independence, of military excite- 
ment and glory was in the air, and many of them, not 
only among those who had no religious handicap, but 
also among the Quakers themselves, joined the Revolu- 
tionary colors. 

Under the old regime Philadelphia had surpassed all 
the other cities of America in growth, prosperity and 
success. It had the best local government of them all. 
It was the leader in every dement of progress, and the 
equal of any of them in educational development. It 
was the most advanced of them all in the refinement 
and social culture of its upper classes. It was the me- 
tropolis of the American Colonies. For the practical 
enjoyment of life, liberty and happiness, of freedom of 
thought and religious belief, and the security of worldly 
possessions, Philadelphia had not its equal, far less its 
superior, elsewhere. And all these things it owed to the 
liberality and wise forethought vouchsafed by the Charter 
which King Charles the Second of England had granted 
to William Penn, and the Constitutional Privileges which 
Penn had under it granted to its people. Is it to be 
wondered at, therefore, that so many persons thought 
that they had everything to lose and nothing to gain by 
so complete a subversion of affairs ? 

When in September, 1777, the British Army took pos- 
session of Philadelphia, Mr. Shoemaker having twice 
previously served as Mayor of the City, and also having 
been a Judge of the County Courts and a Justice of the 
Peace, was prevailed upon by General Sir William Howe 
to take charge of its civil affairs in association with 
Joseph Galloway, one of the leaders of the Bar. This 
act rendered them both especially odious to the Whig or 
Revolutionary party, and was the cause of the grievous 
sorrow and trouble which soon after came upon "Laurel 



8 Laurel Hill. 

Hill" and my Colonial Dames, and the consequent sweep- 
ing away of the ample means which had once been theirs. 

Mr. Galloway was an intimate friend of Mr. Shoemaker. 
Their country places, "Laurel Hill" and "Ormiston," 
adjoined each other, and we can picture to ourselves 
these two old cronies wandering or sitting on the banks 
of the Schuylkill, or in the glen separating the places, or 
among these lovely old trees, admiring the beautiful 
landscape and condoling with each other upon the sad 
state of affairs which, as they thought, their misguided 
countrymen had brought to pass. 

The members of a united family living together in 
harmony have but little occasion to record the details 
of their daily lives, so there is not much preserved relating 
to "Laurel Hill" and its occupants until the troublous 
times of the Revolutionary struggle came upon them. 
During the first years of the Revolution the Rawle- 
Shoemaker family continued to reside in Philadelphia, 
spending, as usual, much of their time at "Laurel Hill." 
Until the occupation of Philadelphia by the British, Mr. 
Shoemaker had taken practically no part in the struggle. 
But his association with Mr. Galloway in the Civil Gov- 
ernment of the city during its occupation by the British 
Army in the winter of 1777-78, to which I have referred, 
brought matters to a crisis, and on March 6, 1778, the 
State Legislature, then sitting at Lancaster, had declared 
them and other prominent citizens guilty of high treason 
and all their estates forfeited to the State, unless they 
surrendered themselves by the twentieth day of April 
following. This they did not do, and suffered the con- 
sequences. On June 17, 1778, a few days before the 
evacuation of Philadelphia by the British Army, Mr. 
Shoemaker sailed for New York with the fleet, accom- 
panied by his step-son William Rawle, then a lad of nine- 
teen years of age. The latter went at the urgent request 
of his mother. Some idea of the discomforts which the 
unfortunate refugees must have endured in travelling is 
afforded by a letter of William Rawle to one of his sisters, 



Laurel Hill. 9 

in which he states that they were two days and nights on 
board a small sloop on their way down the Delaware 
River to Reedy Island, near which they found the fleet 
lying, and thirteen days on the passage from Philadelphia 
to the Capes. 

No sooner had the Revolutionary authorities returned 
to Philadelphia than they proceeded to carry out the 
strenuous measures against the Loyalists that the Con- 
fiscation Act had provided for. As we learn from the 
diary of Charles Willson Pealc, the artist, who was an 
ardent patriot and one of the agents for securing and 
selling the forfeited estates, they immediately after the 
evacuation set about fulfilling the duties of their offices. 
They began, he says, with the property of those who were 
of the most consideration among the unfortunates. Mrs. 
Joseph Galloway, who remained after his departure in 
the house of her husband, one of the attainted ones, was 
the first to be visited. When they went there to dispos- 
sess her, they found her counsel, Mr. Elias Boudinot, 
with her. Against her will, and, at first, her physical 
opposition, Peale succeeded in conducting her to General 
Arnold's carriage, which was at the door, having been 
supplied for the occasion. "The same sort of business," 
he writes, "they were likely to have with Mrs. Shoe- 
maker, but on that occasion Mr. Boudinot agreed to 
give peaceable possession on the morning following, which 
terms were accepted by the agents, as they wished to 
make things as easy as they could with those whose mis- 
fortune it was to come within their notice." 

The Act provided that after twelve months the real 
estates of the attainted Tories should be sold. Conse- 
quently, all of Mr. Shoemaker's landed property, which 
was extensive, was on April 12, 1779, ordered to be sold 
at public sale by the State agents for the confiscated 
estates, among the rest his delightful home on the north 
side of Arch (then Mulberry) Street above Front, one of 
the finest residences in the city. In their eagerness they 



10 Laurel Hill. 

likewise seized and sold much of Mrs. Shoemaker's own 
property, as well as that which had come to her from her 
first husband, Francis Rawle, who had made her the sole 
devisee of his estate, including "Laurel Hill." 

In those days ("unenlightened" — "barbarous" — days 
you will probably call them), all the property of a married 
woman, even her spring bonnets and frocks and jewelry, 
belonged to her husband. Her personal estate upon mar- 
riage became his absolutely, her real estate his for his 
life. The handsome fortune which Mr. Rawle had left to 
his wife was unfortunately not preserved for his children, 
and in consequence it was almost entirely swept away 
by the zealous action of some of the Revolutionary party, 
all because of the political difficulties which had come 
upon Mr. Shoemaker. 

After the breaking up of the family home communica- 
tion between those who went to New York and those 
who remained in Philadelphia became exceedingly diffi- 
cult. The sending of correspondence through the military 
lines without permission was prohibited, and much of 
theirs was seized and destroyed. Notwithstanding this, 
however, frequent opportunities were taken to elude the 
authorities. Fictitious names were used and many of the 
allusions and messages arc now unintelligible. There was 
one method of communication which seems to have been 
winked at, if not allowed — that of sending the local 
newspapers from New York to Philadelphia, and from 
Philadelphia to New York. Advantage was taken of 
this to convey to each other information of different sorts. 
Many numbers of Rivington's "Royal Gazette" which 
Mr. Shoemaker sent to his wife, with brief messages 
written on the margins, have been preserved, and are 
now in the Loganian Library in Philadelphia. 

Mrs. Shoemaker was a woman of decided character, 
strong in her feelings, and apparently of great fluency in 
expressing what she wished to say, and she was an ardent 
Loyalist. Women then, as now, were apt to go to extreme 



Laurel Hill. 11 

lengths in their feelings and expressions in times of great 
political excitement, and were thus apt sometimes to get 
themselves into trouble. After her husband and son had 
been some months in New York Mrs. Shoemaker applied 
to the State authorities for permission to join them there. 
This was refused, and refused again in May, 1779, as it 
would be, they said, "inconsistent with the interest of the 
State." She was summoned before the Supreme Execu- 
tive Council in March, 1780, in consequence of the inter- 
ception of some of her journals, which showed that she 
had assisted prisoners and other enemies of the Govern- 
ment to pass clandestinely to New York. What was done 
with her is not recorded in the Minutes of the Council, 
but when, two months later, she again applied for leave 
to go to New York and to return in one year, she got more 
than she asked for, and was told to go and give security 
that she would not return at any time without leave first 
obtained from the Council. She remained in New York 
for a year, and returned to Philadelphia, presumably by 
permission, in April, 1782. There she remained until 
April, 1783, when she again went to New York, and stayed 
there until November 7 following, a few days before her 
husband and their only child, Edward, then a lad in his 
fourteenth year, sailed for England, just before the 
evacuation of New York by the British Army. 

The correspondence between the separated members 
of the family, some of which took the form of diaries, is, 
as I have stated, in part preserved, in manuscript, chiefly 
that written between the years 1780 and 1786. We can- 
not read some of it now after the lapse of more than a 
century of time without smiles of complacency, and 
indeed even of amusement. Covering as it does a most 
eventful period of history, and treating of the events of 
those days from the Loyalist point of view, it is both 
valuable and interesting. While Mrs. Shoemaker was in 
New York with her husband the correspondence was 
chiefly between herself and her two daughters, Anna and 



12 Laurel Hill. 

Margaret Rawle. There is preserved the complete series 
of Mrs. Shoemaker's letters to her husband a ter he had 
sailed for England in November, 1783, until his return to 
America in May, 1786, as also a concise diary kept for 
the entertainment of his wife by Mr. Shoemaker from 
the day they parted in New York until October, 1785. 

Many of the letters treat of business matters, and show 
the great losses and terrible sufferings which the Loyalists 
endured; others are in a lighter vein and give us vivid 
pen-pictures of Philadelphia and New York society of 
that day. In this correspondence fancy or fictitious 
names, as was common in social circles during the Revolu- 
tion, were frequently given to the different members of 
the family and their friends. Thus William Rawle was 
known as "Horatio"; Anna Rawle as "Fanny"; Margaret 
or "Peggy" Rawle as "Adelaide"; and Sally Burge, their 
intimate friend and subsequently the wife of William 
Rawle, as "Juliet." In memory of the days of their 
youth Mr. and Mrs. Rawle accordingly named their two 
youngest children "Horatio" and "Juliet." But this is 
anticipating. The scope of this paper and the time at 
disposal preclude the possibility of giving more than a 
very few extracts from the letters and diaries. 

After the breaking up of the family home, which had 
been Mr. Shoemaker's house in Arch (then Mulberry) 
Street, Mrs. Shoemaker, while in Philadelphia, and her 
daughters lived sometimes with Mrs. Edward Warner, 
Mrs. Shoemaker's mother, in her house, which was directly 
opposite their former home in Arch Street; at other times 
with Benjamin Shoemaker, who was Samuel Shoemaker's 
son by his first wife (Hannah, daughter of Samuel Car- 
penter , and who lived on the South side of High (now 
Market) Street below Eighth; and also at times in the 
house adjoining, this last also belonging to Benjamin 
Shoemaker. Mrs. Benjamin Shoemaker was Elizabeth 
Warner, the sister of Mrs. Samuel Shoemaker, his step- 
mother. 



Laurel Hill. 13 

In the spring of 1780, as has been mentioned, Mrs. 
Shoi maker journeyed to New York to visit her husband. 
Her stepson Benjamin Shoemaker accompanied her as far 
as the Brit sh lines. Her daughter Anna Rawle writing 
to her from Philadelphia under date of June 30, 1780, 
says: 

"By the person who brought thy letter from Rahway 
I wrote a long one which he promised, if thee should be 
gone f om there, to forward into New York * * * * 
Peggy and I staid with my Aunt till B[enjamin] returned. 
Tho' so little in the house belonged to us, packing them 
up furnished employ for several mornings; one day, when 
thus engaged up stairs, Polly Birk, [one of the servants] 
who was the only person with me in the house, exclaimed, 
'Bless me if there is not a whole company of soldiers at 
4fl Mr. S[hoemaker]'s door!' I was frightened, and was going 

down to my aunt and sister, when at the foot of the stairs 
I observed a man placed, rattling the lock of his gun, as 
if trying to alarm. I ran up again, and in a few minutes 
two men entered the room, and I soon found their busi- 
ness was to search for arms. They looked in the closet, 
and desired me, not in the mildest terms, to unlock my 
trunks. I told them they were already undone. They 
then put their canes in, and by the greatest good luck in 
the world, the little pla + e that belonged to me remained 
undisturbed at the bottom of the trunk; they would have 
taken it, I am certain, from their behaviour. Not rinding 
arms they went away. They treated my Aunt in the 
same manner, rummaging the closets and drawers, and 
placing a guard at the stairs. One of them said, when 
Peggy went up, that it was to hide guns. There were but 
one or two houses where they treated people with so 
little ceremony. At other places they took their word. 

"But of al absurdities the ladies going about for 
money exceeded everything; they were so extremely im- 

1 See Win. B. Reed's Life of Joseph Reed, vol. ii, p. 260, Ac, and 429, &c 



14 Laurel Hill. 

portunate that people were obliged to give them some- 
thing to get rid of them. Mrs. Beech [Bache] and the set 
with her, came to our door the morning after thee went, 
and turned back again. The reason she gave to a person 
who told me was that she did not chuse to face Mrs. S. ot- 
her daughters. 

"H[annah] Thompson, Mrs. [Robert] Morris, Mrs. 
[James] Wilson, and a number of very genteel women, 
paraded about streets in this manner, some carrying ink 
stands, nor did they let the meanest ale house escape. 
The gentlemen also were honoured with their visits. 
Bob Wharton declares he was never so teased in his life. 
They reminded him of the extreme rudeness of refusing 
anything to the fair, but he was inexorable and pleaded 
want of money, and the heavy taxes, so at length they 
left him, after threatening to hand his name down to 
posterity with infamy." 

Under date of November 4, 1780, she says: * * * 
" Speaking of handsome women brings Nancy Willing to my 
mind. She might set for the Queen of Beauty, and is lately 
married to Bingham, who returned from the West Indies 
with an immense fortune. They have set out in highest 
style; nobody here will be able to make the figure they do; 
equipage, house, cloathes, are all the newest taste, — and 
yet some people wonder at the match. She but sixteen 
and such a perfect form. His appearance is less amiable." 

From New York, Mrs. Shoemaker writes to her daugh- 
ters, January 8, 1781: 

"P[eggy] A[rnold] is not so much admired here for her 
beauty as one might have expected. All allow she has 
great Sweetness in her countenance, but wants Anima- 
tion, sprightliness and that fire in her eyes which was so 
captivating in Capt. Lloyd's] wife. But notwithstanding 
she does not possess that Life and animation that some 
do, they have met with every attention indeed, much more 
than they could have promised themselves, and the very 
genteel appointment which he [General Benedict Arnold] 
holds in this [the British] Service, joined to a Very large 



Laurel Hill. 15 

present, (which I am told he has received,) is fully suffi- 
cient for every Demand in genteel life." Speaking of 
Mrs. Arnold again, Mrs. Shoemaker writes that she 
attended a ball at head quarters in New York, and that 
"she appeared a star of the first magnitude, and had 
every attention paid her as if she had been Lady Clinton. 
Is not this fine encouragement for generals to follow 
Arnold's] example?" 

The letters contain many similar references to events, 
and allusions to well known people, and a good deal of 
gossip too. 

The Act of Attainder and Confiscation further provided 
that the President, or Vice-President, and Supreme Execu- 
tive Council might rent out forfeited real estates for a 
! ime not exceeding two years, paying the taxes and other 
expenses, and managing them until they should be sold 
in the manner thereinafter directed. As "Laurel Hill," 
which had belonged to Mrs. Shoemaker's first husband, 
Francis Rawle, had been left by his will to her, Mr. 
Shoemaker, as her second husband, had a life estate in 
the property as "tenant by the curtesy." In their 
patriotic zeal the people in authority disregarded the 
principle of law that the sale of such a life estate had no 
other effect than to free a wife's houses and lands from 
all of her husband's estate when he had been attainted 
for high treason, and to vest the title in her to as full an 
effect as if he had died. The State agents took possession 
of "Laurel Hill" before its sale, and apparently allowed 
the President of the State, General Joseph Reed, to occupy 
it as a summer residence. Reed was the most ardent and 
active of the persecutors of the Philadelphia Loyalists. 
His animosity had been particularly visited upon Mr. and 
Mrs. Shoemaker and her children, and the letters often 
refer to him in a manner far from affectionate or compli- 
mentary. 

Anna Rawle writes to her mother under date of Septem- 
ber 20, 1780: "The wife of a certain peison can never 



16 Laurel Hill. 

spend another summer at Laurel Hill. Her pleasure there 
had a melancholy and short termination. She is dead, 
and of a disorder that made people whisper about 'that 
she eat too many of Mr. S. . . 's peaches!' Her husband 
fainted at the grave." The person here referred to was 
no other than the wife of President Reed himself. She 
had died in Philadelphia two days previously, September 
18th, having shortly before been brought there from 
"Laurel Hill." 

The diary of Miss Anna Rawle (which she kept for the 
information and entertainment of her mother in New 
York) gives a very characteristic account of the effect of 
the arrival in Philadelphia of the news of Lord Corn- 
wallis' surrender at Yorktown and the great conster- 
nation it created among the Neutrals and Loyalists, be- 
tween whom the mass of the Revolutionary party could 
see no difference, for it considered that all who were not 
with it were against it, and acted accordingly. 

"October 22, 1781.— Second day. The first thing I 
heard this morning was that Lord Cornwallis had sur- 
rendered to the French and Americans — intelligence as 
surprizing as vexatious. People who are so stupidly 
regardless of their own interests are undeserving of com- 
passion, but one cannot help lamenting that the fate of 
so many worthy persons should be connected with the 
failure or success of the British army. 

"Uncle Howell 1 came in soon after Breakfast, and tho' 
he is neither Whig nor Tory, looked as if he had sat up 
all night; he was glad to see all here so cheerful, he said. 
When he was gone Ben. Shoemaker arrived; he was told 
it as he came along, and was astonished. However, as 
there is no letter from Washington, we flatter ourselves 
that it is not true. * * * 

"October 24. — Fourth day. I feel in a most unset- 
tled humour. I can neither read, work or give my atten- 

1 Joshua Howell, who had married Mrs. Samuel Shoemaker's sister 
Catharine, daughter of Edward and Anna (Coleman) Warner 



Laurel Hill. 17 

tion one moment to anything. It is too true that Corn- 
wallis is taken. Tilghman is just arrived with dispatches 
from Washington which confirm it. * * * 

"October 25. — Fifth Day. — I suppose, dear Mammy, 
thee would not have imagined this house to be illuminated 
last night, but it was. A mob surrounded it, broke the 
shutters and the glass of the windows, and were coming 
in, none but forlorn women here. We for a time listened 
for their attacks in fear and trembling till, finding them 
grow more loud and violent, not knowing what to do, 
we ran into the yard. Warm Whigs of one side, and 
Hartley's of the other (who were treated even worse than 
we), rendered it impossible for us to escape that way. 
We had not been there many minutes before we were 
drove back by the sight of two men climbing the fence. 
We thought the mob were coming in thro' there, but it 
proved to be Coburn and Bob. Shewell, who called to us 
not to be frightened, and fixed lights up at the windows, 
which pacified the mob, and after three huzzas they 
moved off. A number of men came in afterwards to see us. 
French and J. B. nailed boards up at the broken pannels, 
or it would not have been safe to have gone to bed. 
Coburn and Shewell were really very kind; had it not been 
for them I really believe the house would have been pulled 
down. Even the firm Uncle Fisher 1 was obliged to submit 
to have his windows illuminated, for they had pickaxes 
and iron bars with which they had done considerable 
injury to his house, and would soon have demolished it 
had not some of the Hodges and other people got in back 
and acted as they pleased. All Uncle's sons were out 
but Sammy, 2 and if they had been at home it was in vain 

1 William Fisher, merchant, who married Mrs. Samuel Shoemaker's 
aunt, Sarah (Coleman). He, also, lived in Arch Street between Front and 
Second Streets. He was a member of the Common Council of Philadelphia 
from 1767 to 1770, of the Board of Aldermen from 1770 to the fall of the 
Charter government in 1776, and Mayor of the City 1773-1774. 

' The late Samuel W. Fisher, President of the Philadelphia Insurance 
Company, and President of Select Council 1811-1813. 



18 Laurel Hill. 

to oppose them. In short it was the most alarming scene 
I ever remember. For two hours we had the disagreeable 
noise of stones banging about, glass crashing, and the 
tumultuous voices of a large body of men, as they were 
a long time at the different houses in the neighborhood. 
At last they were victorious, and it was one general illumi- 
nation throughout the town. As we had not the pleasure 
of seeing any of the gentlemen in the house, nor the furni- 
ture cut up, and goods stolen, nor been beat, nor pistols 
pointed at our breasts, we may count our sufferings slight 
compared to many others. Mr. Gibbs was obliged to 
make his escape over a fence, and while his wife was 
endeavouring to shield him from the rage of one of the 
men, she received a violent bruise in the breast, and a 
blow in the face which made her nose bleed. Ben. Shoe- 
maker was here this morning; tho' exceedingly threat- 
ened he says he came off with the loss of four panes of 
glass. Some Whig friends put candles in the windows 
which made his peace with the mob, and they retired. 
John Drinker 1 has lost half the goods out of his shop and 
been beat by them; in short the sufferings of those they 
pleased to style Tories would fill a volume and shake the 
credulity of those who were not here on that memorable 
night, and to-day Philadelphia makes an uncommon 
appearance, which ought to cover the Whigs with eternal 
confusion. A neighbour of ours had the effrontery to 
tell Mrs. G[alloway] that he was sorry for her furniture, 
but not for her windows — a ridiculous distinction that 
many of them make. J. Head has nothing left whole in 
his parlour. Uncle Penington 2 lost a good deal of window- 
glass. Aunt Burge 3 preserved hers thro' the care of some 

1 See Journal of Elizabeth Drinker, p. 137, for her account of the same 
episode. 

1 Edward Penington, who had married Sarah, the sister of Samuel 
Shoemaker. 

1 Beulah Burge, a sister of Samuel Shoemaker, widow of Samuel Burge. 
Their daughter Sarah married, in 1783 William Rawle, the elder, who waa 
a brother of the diarist. 



Laurel Hill. 19 

of her neighbors. The Drinkers and Wains make heavy 
complaints of the Carolinians in their neighbourhood. 
Wains' pickles were thrown about the streets and barrells 
of sugar stolon. Grandmammy was the most composed 
of anybody here. Was I not sure, my dearest Mother, 
that you would have very exaggerated accounts of this 
affair from others, and would probably be uneasy for 
the fate of our friends, I would be entirely silent about 
it, but as you will hear it from some one or another, 
not mentioning it will seem as if we had suffered exceed- 
ingly, and I hope I may depend on the safety of this 
opportunity. 

"People did nothing to-day but condole and enquire 
into each others honourable losses. * * * 

"October 26. — Sixth day. — Neighbor Wain and Ben. 
Shoemaker were here in the afternoon. Juliet, Polly 
Foulke and James Fisher came to see us in the evening; 
the conversation as usual on the late disturbances. It 
seems universally agreed that Philadelphia will no longer 
be that happy asylum for the Quakers that it once was. 
Those joyful days when all was prosperity and peace are 
gone, never to return; and perhaps it is as necessary for 
our society 1 to ask for terms as it was for Cornwallis. 
Juliet says all Uncle Penington's fine pictures are broken; 
his parlour was full of men, but it was nothing, he said, to 
Nancy's illness, who was for an hour or two out of her 
senses and terrified them exceedingly." 

It was not until February 20, 1782, that Mr. Shoe- 
maker's life estate in "Laurel Hill" was sold by the State 
agents, and on March 20, the Patent therefor was exe- 
cuted by the President of the Supreme Executive Council, 
William Moore, to Major James Parr, the purchaser, in 
consideration of £5,000 Pennsylvania money. Parr was 
an extensive investor in the confiscated estates. Before, 



1 The Quakers. 



20 Laurel Hill. 

however, the title had been actually conveyed to him, 
Major Parr, on February 26, 1782, in consideration of 
£500, gold or silver money, had leased the place to "His 
Excellency, the Chevalier de Luzerne, Minister of France" 
to the United States, for the term of five years thence 
ensuing, "if the said Shoemaker should so long live." 
In her diary Mrs. Shoemaker, then in New York, pathet- 
ically writes, February 4, 1782: "I see [from the news- 
papers that] our last little spot, poor ' Laurel Hill,' is to 
have another possessor. We cannot see any more adver- 
tised; they have sold all." And her daughter Anna, 
writing to her two days later, says: "The President] has 
not given up his town house, as my dear Mother imagined; 
he still keeps it, the wife of his successor being one of those 
simple hearted women who chuse to live in nobody's 
house but their own. I must confess that I am not sorry 
that 'Laurel Hill' is to have another master; he never 
was a favourite of mine. They say he pays his addresses 
to Belle White. I shall think the girl out of her senses 
if she has him." 

The Chevalier of course had his French cook, and the 
French cook his truffle-dog, which, in the pursuit of his 
vocation in life, is said to have discovered truffles in the 
grounds around the house, much to the astonishment and 
delight of his master — one of the few instances, and it is 
believed the first, of the finding in this country of that 
delicious article in its natural state. Mr. Hazard, in his 
third volume of Watson's Annals, quotes this family 
tradition; but, as has been suggested, whether the tradi- 
tion is truthful or not, or whether the absence or scarcity 
of truffles in America is to be attributed to the short- 
comings of the comparatively few enterprising French 
cooks who bless us with their presence, or to the absence 
of truffle-dogs, has not been ascertained. 

When the fanaticism against the Loyalists had some- 
what abated after the Peace, the civil authorities seem to 



Laurel II ill. -1 

have come to view in the proper legal light the matter 
of the sale of Mrs. Shoemaker's property in consequence 
of the attainder of her husband. The learned in the 
legal profession gave it as their opinion that the only 
effect of the sale was to vest the title to the property in 
her clear of any of her husband's rights therein. Some 
years subsequently this principle was affirmed by the 
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania when a similar question 
arose concerning the estate of Mrs. Joseph Galloway. 

Major Parr also seems to have appreciated the doubtful 
element in his title, and to have been not unwilling to 
consider proposals from the family for a surrender of his 
interest in the place. But the lease to Luzerne apparently 
complicated the matter. "Major Parr," as Mrs. Shoe- 
maker wrote from Philadelphia to her husband on January 
14, 1784, "has offered Laurel Hill for £400— but that is 
certainly too much, as the minister has three years yet 
to come, and I believe is so well pleased with it that 
he does not wish to part with it." 

The enjoyment of "Laurel Hill" by His Excellency 
was not, however, to continue the full length of his lease. 
The failure of his government to appropriate the means 
for the support of his office, it has been said, caused him 
to contemplate a return to his own country. A satis- 
factory arrangement of the matter of the lease was 
eventually arrived at, and Parr, in consideration of £300, 
silver money, on February 27, 1784, by endorsement 
upon his Patent, conveyed to William Rawle all his 
estate and interest in "Laurel Hill," irrespective of the 
remainder of the Chevalier's term. (I may here state that 
William Rawle had returned home in January, 1783, after 
having spent nineteen months in Europe, studying law 
in the Middle Temple in London and travelling on the 
Continent.) 

"I believe I mentioned," wrote Mrs. Shoemaker on 
May 12, 1784, "that the Minister of France was going 
home soon; it is fixed for next month, and I have had a 



'22 Laurel Hill. 

specimen of French generosity in an Ambassador bar- 
gaining with the owner of a little country house for the 
remainder of a lease. Nothing lets than the rent he gave 
will do, and I must agree to that or not have it. I sup- 
pose he will think he has been extremely liberal and gen- 
teel in agreeing to be paid yearly as rent, and not insisting 
upon the money down as he paid it. He keeps possession 
until the 10th of June." 

On June 16, 1784, she again wrote: "Benjamin, Wil- 
liam and myself took a ride last week to Laurel Hill, the 
first time I had been there since the year 1779. I am 
now tenant to the Minister and have engaged to pay him 
the yearly rent of £100 per an. for the remainder of his 
lease, almost three years to come. * * * * Thee 
expected the Minister would have been so generous and 
libe al, i: he was made acquainted with the real circum- 
stances of it, as to restore it. A[nthony] Benezet who was 
intimate with him was the person who called on W[illiam] 
R[awle] and told him that the Minister was going home 
and desired to see some of the family. William went 
there twice with Anthony, and as he, William, speaks 
French, gave him the fullest information respecting it. 
He said he had several applications for the place, but he 
chose to offer :t to the family, and I am to consider myself 
favoured in having it upon rent instead of paying the 
money down. I myself had a good deal of conversation 
with A[nthony] B[enezet] about it. I told him how con- 
trary this was from the language they spoke when they 
first came here, of the bad policy and illiberality of the 
Americans to sell estates; that their court would not have 
done so, but now I found it was all talk. Poor A[nthony] 
could not say much but that his countrymen did not 
love to part with their money for nothing, and he must 
own it was inconsistent from their sentiments; he was 
very partial to his own Nation." 

While in New York Mr. Shoemaker did much to alle- 
viate the miseries of the prisoners in the hands of the 



Laurel Hill. ^ 

British and in obtaining the release of many of them. 
Charles Biddle in his autobiography mentions the kind- 
nesses which he himself experienced at his hands. After 
he went to England, where, chiefly in London, he spent 
two years and a half, Mr. Shoemaker and his home seem 
to have been the centres of attraction for those of his 
countrymen who took advantage of the restoration of 
peace to visit that country. He was closely thrown also 
with many of those of his own political faith, who, like 
himself, were refugees from their native land. Men of 
refinement, of culture, and of education, there mingled 
with officers of high rank and other persons of prominence 
whom they had met in America. Among Mr. Shoe- 
maker's valued friends was Benjamin West, the Artist. 
It is related that West when a plain country boy living 
near Philadelphia had inspired Mr. Shoemaker with much 
interest in the evidences of his artistic talent and that the 
first painted picture that West ever saw had been shown 
to him by Mr. Shoemaker. He and other affluent citizens 
of cultured tastes had encouraged West in his early crude 
efforts at painting, and by concerted action made it 
possible for him to go to study in Europe. While Mr. 
Shoemaker was on a visit to West at Windsor an inter- 
view took place between the King and himself in the 
presence of the Queen and the Royal Princesses. He 
gives a full account of it in his diary: — 

"First Day, Octo'r 10, 1784. This morning at 8 'Clock 
thy son accompanied B. West's wife to the King's Chappel 
where he had the opportunity of seeing the King and 
several of the Princesses. They returned before 9 when 
we were entertained with breakfast, at which we had the 
Company of Mr. Poggy the Italian Gent'n, Mr. Trumble, 
Mr. Farrington, and West's two sons. About 10 thy son 
accompanied Farrington, Trumble, and West's eldest son 
in a Ride through Windsor Forrest, having first been 
with West and I to his Room in the Castle to see a picture 
of the Lord's Supper which he had just finish'd for the 



24 Laurel Hill. 

King's Chappel. After part of our Company were gone 
to take their Ride, West informed me that the King had 
order'd him to attend at his Painting Room in the Castle 
at one 'Clock, when the King and Queen and some of the 
Princesses, on their return from Chappel, intended to call 
to see the Painting of the Lord's Supper which he had 
just finished, and West told me it would be a very proper 
time and Opportunity for me to see the King, Queen, and 
the rest of the family, as they came from the Chappel, and 
therefore requested me to accompany him and his Wife,, 
and walk at the Castle near the Chappel, till service was 
over, when he must repair to his room to attend the King, 
and would leave me with his Wife in a proper Station to 
have a full view of the King and family. 

"Accordingly, a little before one O'Clock, West and 
his Wife and I, walk'd up to the Castle and there contin'd 
walking about till the Clock struck One, when we observ'd 
one of the Pages coming from the Chappel. West then 
said he must leave us; presently after this two Coaches 
pass'd and went round towards the Door of the Castle 
leading to West's Room. In these two coaches were the 
Queen and Princesses; presently after the King appear'd, 
attended by his Equery only, and walk'd in great haste, 
almost ran to meet the Coaches at the door of the Castle 
above mentioned, which he reach'd just as the Coaches 
got there, as did West's Wife, and I, when we saw the 
King go to the Door of the Coach in which the Queen 
was, and heard him say, '/ have got here in time/ and then 
handed the Queen out, and up the Steps, into the Castle — 
the Princess Royal, Princess Elizabeth, Princess Mary, 
and Princess Sophia, with Col. Goldsworthy, the Kings 
Equery, the Hanoverian Resident, and Miss Goldsworthy, 
sub-Governess to the two young Princesses, followed. 
They all went into the Castle, when I hear'd the King 
say, 'tell him to come in,' but little did I think I was the 
Person meant, and West's Wife and I were about going 
off, when West came out of the Castle and told me the 



Laurel Hill. 25 

King had order'd him to come out and bring me and Mrs. 
West in. I was quite unprepar'd for this; however, it 
was now too late to avoid it. West and his Wife and I 
went into the Castle and were ushered up to the Room 
where the King and Royal family were, and there intro- 
duc'd. Flattered and embarrassed thou may suppose, on 
my entering the Room, the King came up close to me, 
and very graciously said ' Mr. S. you are well known here, 
every body knows you/ &c. (complimentary w'ch I can't 
mention). He then turned to the Queen, the Princesses, 
&c, who stood close by, and repeated, 'Mr. S.' I then 
made my bow to the Queen, then to the Princess Royal, 
to the Princess Eliza., Princesses Mary and Sophia. The 
Queen and each of the Princesses were pleased to drop a 
Curtesy, and then the Queen was pleased to ask me one 
or two Questions; the King and Queen and the four 
Princesses, the Hanoverian Resident, Col. Goldsworthy, 
Miss Goldsworthy, West and his Wife and I were all that 
were in the Room. The King condescended to ask me 
many questions, and repeated my answers to them to the 
Queen and to the Hanoverian Resident, and when to the 
latter, I observ'd he spoke it in German, which I under- 
stood. Among other Questions, the King was pleased to 
ask me the reason why the Province of Pennsylvania was 
so much further advanc'd in improvement than the 
neighbouring ones, some of which had been settled so 
many years earlier. I told his Majesty (thinking it w'd 
be a kind of Compliment to the Queen's Countrymen) 
that I thought it might be attributed to the Germans, 
great numbers of whom had gone over in the early part 
of the settlement of that Province, as well as since. The 
King smiled and said, 'it may be so, Mr. S., it may in 
some measure be owing to that, but I will tell you the true 
cause, — the great improvement and flourishing State of 
Pennsylvania is principally owing to the QUAKERS' 
(this was a full return for my compliment to the Queen's 
Countrymen) for whom I observe the King has a great 



26 Laurel Hill. 

regard. Finding the king so repeatedly mention'd what 
I said to the Hanov'n Resident and to the Queen, in 
German, on the King's asking me a particular question, 
I took the liberty to answer in German, at which the King 
seemed pleased, and with a smile, turned to the Queen 
and said, 'Mr. S. speaks German/ and also mentioned it 
to the Hanoverian Resident, after which the King was 
pleased to speak to me several times in German. Then 
the Queen condescended to ask me several Questions, 
one of the last, whether I had a family. On my telling 
her that I was once bless'd with a numerous family, but 
that it had pleased Providence to remove them all from 
me, except a Wife and two Sons, this visibly touched the 
Queen's delicate feelings, so much that she shed some 
Tears, at which I was greatly affected. She is a charming 
woman, and if not a Beauty, her manners and disposition 
are so pleasing that no Person who has the Opportunity 
that I have had can avoid being charm'd with the sweet- 
ness of her disposition. The Princess Royal is pretty, 
has a charming Countenance Indeed; the Princess Eliza- 
beth very agreeable, but rather too fat or bulky for her 
height. Mary and Sophia are pretty, but being so young 
their looks will alter. 

"After being graciously indulged with the opportunity 
of conversing with the King and Queen, and being in the 
Room with them three-quarters of an hour, they all 
departed and went to the Queen's House. 

" I cannot say but I wished some of my violent Country- 
men could have such an opportunity as I have had. I 
think they would be convinced that George the third has 
not one grain of Tyrany in his Composition, and that he 
is not, he cannot be that bloody minded man they have 
so repeatedly and so illiberally called him. It is impos- 
sible; a man of his fine feelings, so good a husband, so 
kind a Father, cannot be a Tyrant." 

As the animosities engendered by the War had subsided 
to a considerable extent Shoemaker and his son Edward 



Laurel Hill 27 

sailed homeward from England on April 21, 1786, and 
arrived in New York on May -7th. They at once went to 
Burlington, New Jersey, where Mrs. Shoemaker met them. 
There they resided for a while and then moved to Phila- 
delphia, where, and at "Laurel Hill," they lived happily 
in peace and quietness. During his later years Mr. 
Shoemaker's means had become much straitened by 
reason of the losses he had suffered owing to his loyalty 
to the King, but these were in a measure recouped by the 
compensation voted to him by the British Parliament. 
He seems to have made a favorable impression upon the 
King, for in 1787, "as a token of the high respect His 
Majesty had for his character," to use the words of the 
letter accompanying it, Mr. Shoemaker, after his return 
to America, received from him a copy of a very scarce 
engraving by Sir Robert Strange of West's painting of 
the "Apotheosis of the King's Children Octavius and 
Alfred," which is now in the possession of Mr. Shoemaker's 
descendants in Baltimore. 

Mr. Shoemaker died in Philadelphia on October 10, 
1800, "In the seventy-sixth year of his age, after a short 
illness, which he bore with Christian and manly fortitude. 
Samuel Shoemaker, Esquire," as a published obituary 
notice of him continues, "was highly respected by all who 
had the advantage of cultivating his acquaintance, not 
only on account of his private virtues, but of his unshaken 
integrity and firmness in 1he arduous administration of 
various public duties, to which he was called, in the jnost 
critical times, by the approving voice of his Countrymen, 
to exercise his great talents, on the most important occa- 
sions; in particular, before the late revolution, he exe- 
cuted the office of Mayor of Philadelphia, in a manner 
which reflected reputation upon his character, and dignity 
on those who appointed him to fill that honorable station. 
During the existence of the revolutionary war, he was 
continued the first Magistrate of the Pol'ce of Phila- 
delphia, by an appointment from the King of Great 



28 Laurel Hill. 

Britain, to whom he never forfeited his fidelity; but, in 
the execution of his offices he proved that Loyalty to his 
Sovereign was not incompatible with acts of friendship, 
civility and kindness to the inhabitants of his native 
city; for the truth of this we can appeal to the memory 
of numbers yet living who received marks of his attention: 
— they will not fail to acknowledge it, when their memory 
awakens to the recollection of the services he rendered 
them, abstracted from that spirit of envy, which the 
fervor of political opposition too often engenders. Few 
have distinguished themselves more than he has done in 
private life, by an affable, courteous and obliging be- 
havior to all his neighbors, and none have sustained with 
greater propriety in their families the amiable character 
of an affectionate husband, father and friend." 

Mrs. Shoemaker survived her second husband nine- 
teen years, surrounded by her devoted children, grand- 
children, and great-grandchildren. She died at her home, 
in Sansom below Eighth Street, Philadelphia, on Decem- 
ber 21, 1819. A writer of an obituary notice of her, 
published in one of the Philadelphia journals of the time, 
wrote: — "The grave ought not to close over the remains 
of this excellent and admirable woman without some pub- 
lic memorial of her life and character. A life which, pro- 
tracted beyond the usual term allotted to our species, 
and passed amid trials and vicissitudes of no ordinary 
nature, was marked by the exercise of every virtue, and 
a character as entirely faultless, so free from even the 
trivial blemishes of human nature, that to know her, and 
not to love and respect her, was impossible. It is seldom 
indeed that such a mind and such a heart have been 
joined in any individual, and still more rarely has Provi- 
dence permitted them to continue unimpaired to such 
an age. The intellectual faculties of Mrs. Shoemaker 
were in every stage of her life remarkable. Her under- 
standing, originally clear and powerful, was improved by 
a thorough acquaintance with books and mankind. She 




2 a 



t £ 



Laurel Hill. 29 

had read and observed much; her memory was uncom- 
monly retentive, and never perhaps was any mind less 
clouded by prejudice. These circumstances, with a 
native grace of manner, rendered her conversation 
unusually attractive to the last moment of her existence. 
Over her warm and generous heart too, age had stolen 
with light and printless feet. Nothing of the selfishness, 
nothing of the moroseness, none of the gloom, which 
often accompany advanced years, existed in her. The 
moral sensibility which time (happily perhaps for man- 
kind) almost always deadens, was in her undiminished 
and unaltered. The interest she felt for her numerous 
descendants (of whom she lived to see the third genera- 
tion), was deep, tender and anxious, and it was requited 
by those who were the objects of it, with all that 'honour, 
love and obedience' of which the great poet speaks as 
the dues and accompaniments of old age. To this im- 
perfect sketch of the character of one so truly lamented, 
it may be added, that she was sincerely and unaffectedly 
pious, and without the slightest taint of bigotry or 
austerity." 

In the letters and diaries to which I have referred the 
writers make frequent mention of the beautiful aspect of 
"Laurel Hill," their much loved country home; of the 
charming meadow along the river, which has now dis- 
appeared; of the many beautiful trees, some of them of 
great size ; of the fine apples, peaches, cherries, and straw- 
berries. But beautiful and charming as it still is, a great 
change from those days has come over the lovely scenery 
of this part of the "Hidden River," as the Indians called 
it of old. The building of the dam at Fairmount, which 
was completed in July, 1821, stopped the ebb and flow of 
the tide which had extended up as far as the Falls of the 
Schuylkill. As a result the country places along its banks 
became so unhealthy that their owners could live in them 
no longer. In 1828 William Rawle, as Trustee under his 
Mother's will, sold "Laurel Hill" and its surrounding acres 



30 Laurel Hill. 

to Dr. Philip Syng Physick, the celebrated surgeon, from 
whom the place passed to his descendants the Randolphs, 
and was sold by them in 1869 to the City for park pur- 
poses. 

I have not been able to learn much about its interven- 
ing history. I fancy that there is little to relate. For 
some years this house was occupied by the Quoit Club, 
a mildly athletic association of our fathers and grand- 
fathers, who found the exercise of pitching quoits such 
a thirst creating one as to require them to indulge in a 
plentiful consumption of the fluids with which they 
stocked the house, and this they did with much con- 
viviality. After them came a series of equally thirsty 
Germans, who used the place as a beer garden and miti- 
gated their sufferings in a similar manner. Hereafter, 
I trust that under your fair auspices and hospitality 
"the cup which cheers but does not inebriate" will ever 
be at hand, as it was with those ladies to whom I have 
introduced you to-day, to welcome you and your friends 
within these walls. May I express the hope that in the 
long time to come this little country home, now yours, will 
be cherished and cared for by your Society, and that once 
in a while your thoughts will go back to the Colonial 
Dames of old who lived here and endured and suffered 
so much in the cause which, to their cost, but to our 
and our country's infinite gain, proved not to be the 
right one, in the stirring and eventful days of the American 
Revolution. 






am 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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